Beginning of the End

My summer is fast drawing to a close. I have less than two weeks here in Bloomington with my sister, and then I am going back home to Chicago for a week before my internship begins. I am trying to enjoy my last bits of free time while I can. On Wednesday, my sister and I went to the pool for the first time together this summer. It was a bit chilly out, but a nice day overall as long as you didn't get in the water. We have been spending so much time together now that she is back from her vacations, and I don't have summer school anymore. It is great, like an automatic build-in playmate, we go do all the errands together, and go shopping, and look at other stores, and all this stuff together. I love it, because she doesn't like to do things along anymore than I do. I am really going to miss seeing her everyday after this summer is over. There is definitely something to be said about living with someone with whom you have been brought up with. It's like we have this whole shared history and upbringing together, and so we do things in very similar manners in a lot of ways. We keep saying we need to live somewhere close together where we can see each other a lot. We keep joking about moving to Atlanta, Georgia together, and in reality, I don't think that's a half bad idea.

On Thursday, we went to Magic Waters in Rockford with the youth group my sister helps out with, and I got kind of burned from that day. We spent the whole day there, we got there around 10 and left about 5:00, so it was a fun day, not too crowded. Tonight, we're going to the drive in to see Must Love Dogs with our cousin and her boyfriend, so it should be fun.

On the work front, I have told B and N about my last day with them, and asked for a transfer, and it looks good that I might get a transfer to a store up near where I live. I talked with the store manager today and set up an appointment with her for the Saturday when I'm back, so I hope that all works out. I think I would only work there two days a week, but it would be a little extra money, and I would get my half-priced coffee drinks, which I desperately need. I have had four frappuccino's already this week. It's like I'm addicted to them. Okay, I am addicted to them, but they're so good, and they're light treats, so I feel like I am having dessert without all the calories.

I'm having my hair and colored this Wednesday, so I'm excited about that. And I'm going to a concert and a play before my internship starts up, I'm going to see Rufus Wainwright in concert and I'm going to see Wicked. So, in all, I'm feeling pretty good with my life at the moment.

Blogs

It seems like everybody is getting a blog now a days. I have received a couple of emails recently from friends who have began new blogs, mainly because of their new babies, of whom they want to post info and pics for others to see. And when I was watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy the other day, one of the guys (sorry, I can't remember his name!) mentioned how blogs were a good replacement for diaries in this electronic age. It sure has kept me more faithful in journaling than I have been since my high school days, when everything was a big drama, so you wanted to record it all down. I guess there's something about publishing writing on-line that makes it seem more exciting, like who knows who will actually be reading all this. I think most people want to feel important and special, and imagine that a lot of cool people read through these excerpts.

So, what exciting things have I been up to lately to astound my audience? Not too much. My summer class ended, so now I'm just working a bit at Barnes and Noble, and they have dropped down our hours since we are up to our full staff, so I am only working 14 hours next week. I'm trying to enjoy my free time, since I only have less then four weeks left now until my internship starts up. I am getting a little anxious about it, because it will be so new, like nothing I have ever done before (school social work), and I hope I do okay. Like, I'll have to do some individual counseling with students, but they haven't actually taught us in our classes how to DO individual counseling, just why it's important. So, I'll get some kid in my office and I won't know what to say to him/her. I'm good at listening, so that's a start. And I'll have three supervisors, so they should all be helpful. I've basically been going to the pool quite a bit, hanging out with my beloved sister, who has somehow turned out to be one of my best friends, and doing a lot of reading. Of course, I have finished the 6th Harry Potter book and am anxiously awaiting the next and final one. I read another book recently that is just good fun summer reading, it reminded me of the Princess Bride because it's kind of a satirical fairy tale world. It's called The Unhandsome Prince by John Moore, and I read it in a day. It was cute. I also read the new Sophie Kinsella book that just came out, called The Undomestic Goddess, which was okay, not as good as some of her other books, but still worth the read. I feel like I haven't read anything remotely literary in awhile, I need to get on that. So, that's what I have been up to. Kind of existing.

Unlucky Day

This week has been a rather boring one for me. My class ended last Thursday, for which I am extremely happy, but now I don't have too much to do. If it wasn't for work, I would be very bored right now. My sister and brother-in-law went on vacation to Hawaii, so I'm alone right now in there house, just me and the cat. Today was a particularly bad day for me. I tried to go running over at this park nearby my house, and I usually just hide the keys in my car and leave a door unlocked while I run. Today, unthinkingly, I locked my car as I got out and so locked myself out. I had no cell phone, no money on me, nothing except my Ipod in hand, and the two people I knew in this town where on holiday. So, I ran over to the Family Video nearby and asked if I could use the phone because I had locked msyelf out. Luckily, the guy who was working there was extremely nice. He called the police first for me, who said they don't do that anymore and I had to call a towing place, so then he called a towing place, who said they charged $45 to do it. I think that's a bit much, but I was in no position to argue, so I said fine. I ran back to my car where the tow truck guy came over, unlocked my car in about a minute, and followed me home so I could run in the house and get some money to pay him. After that, I didn't much feel like exercising anymore, but I did a tae-bo tape in the house so I wouldn't feel too completely lazy. I'm just getting tired of entertaining myself. I'm sick of TV, I've been reading too much, and I've been shopping just about everywhere there is to go. The weather hasn't been nice enough to go to the pool, being raining all day yesterday and overcast today, so hopefully it will be nicer tomorrow so I can go.

A friend is coming to visit me tomorrow for the Harry Potter book release, so I'm all excited about that (the friend and Harry Potter). I have been writing some on this novel my two friends and I are doing together. We're all writing a novel in the month of July, and mine is not off to a great start. We're supposed to have 50,000 words in a month's time, and I have a little over 5000 at this point. I suppose I'm a tenth of the way through, but I'm not exactly sure where this story is heading. I think it's taking a twist on me, so we'll see how it goes.

Part II

Okay, I went to go run errands with my sister, but now I am back. So, my fourth of July was really fun. We went to St. Louis, which I had never really been to before, to watch the fireworks by the arch. They have all these great free things to do in St. Louis. Soon after we arrived, we went to the zoo, which was free, and I got to see my favorite animal, the snow leopard. Alas, all of the big cats were sleeping, although they looked a lot like my sister's adorable siamese cat while doing so. I wanted to hop in and pet them. Not a good idea. After the zoo, we went downtown where they have this festival, kind of like the Taste of Chicago but called differently, where we watched the air show (kind of boring), listened to Switchfoote playing (v. good), and ate some food (kind of a rip-off-expensive). Then, we got seats and watched the fireworks, which lit up right by the arch, so they looked fantastic. We went and got ice cream after this at some famous place there, which I don't remember what it's called.

The next day, we got up early to go and golf, which I have never golfed before in my life. There were 7 of us, and all of the females had never golfed on a real course before. This was a real course, but it was only 9 holes, which was good, because we wouldn't have survived more than that. I didn't actually play, I more drove the golf cart around, which is my new favorite hobby. My brother-in-law is a really good golf player, he played on the golf team at his college and in high school and is fantastic, so he was giving me and my sister some tips. They let me tee off a couple of times, and I also got to chip and do some putting. The last hole, my sister let me do all by myself. It was really fun. I think I want to be a golfer now. Although, the most embarrassing event of my life happened at that golf course. Before we started, my sister and I went to go to the bathroom, and there was this sign on the women's that said "Women Only", but there was no such sign on the mens, so I thought maybe it was for both genders. Someone was in the women's, so I knocked on the men's door, expecting it to be a one-person bathroom. It wasn't, it had a stall and a urinal, but no one was there, so I decided to go ahead and use the stall, expecting my sister to watch the door for me. While in there, this strange guy came in and started using the urinal, and I didn't know what to do. I felt so embarrassed. I guess my sister told him someone was in there, but he said there was the urinal and went on in before she could stop him. So, her husband came up and she sent him in there to rescue me. He had to start talking to this strange guy while he was using the bathroom so I would recognize his voice and know he was in there. I waited until the guy was gone and then my brother-in-law told me I could come out. He is definitely my hero for the week. I think I will only use the women's restrooms from now on.

After golf, we went home and played FedEx Monopoly, which was fun, and ate a barbecued dinner. Then, we went to this outdoor theatre to see "Annie Get Your Gun", it was called the Muny, and they had free seats in the back which is where I sat. It was really good. The only bad thing was then we didn't get back to Bloomington until 2 in the morning and I had to get up at 6 the next morning for class. I was a bit tired. But it was a great weekend.

Truck drivers must be really horny. In the couple of months that I have been commuting between Bloomington and Champaign, I have had about 4 honk at me as I drive by them, and then, as I look at them, they wave at me. I guess it must get boring being on the road for so long each day. I am so happy because I am almost done with my last summer class. Tomorrow is my last day! Huzzah!!!!!!!! It hasn't been too bad, although the subject matter has been extremely boring, but we have gotten a lot of in-class time to work on our projects and homework, so I haven't had to do a whole lot on my own. I have to write one more 3 page paper before Monday, and then I am done.

I have to go now, but I will post more later about my exciting fourth of July.